The transfer fee is reported to be around £20m and he has signed a three-and-a-half year contract. He will wear the Number 11 shirt.

Walcott, 28, becomes Sam Allardyce’s second signing of the January transfer window following the £27m paid for striker Cenk Tosun from Besiktas.

Walcott joined the Gunners from Southampton in 2006 and was Arsenal’s longest-serving player.

In February 2017 he became the 18th player to reach 100 goals for the club.

In total he scored 108 goals in 397 appearances for the Gunners.

He also scored the opening goal of the 2015 FA Cup Final against Aston Villa, with the Gunners going on to win the match 4-0.

This is what Walcott has had to say today about signing for the Toffees.

“I’m very ambitious and I’ve come here because I want the Club to push to the next level,” Walcott said.

“And with the players that have come in, I feel like the next level can be reached.

“I’m very excited to be starting a new chapter and I felt this was the right place for me to be.

“The manager is very ambitious and I feel like the Club is going in the right direction.

“Everton is a club with a great history. The fans are always passionate, they’re great and I always used to find it very tough playing here.

“The Club has won trophies but I want them to win trophies now. The manager is very hungry and it’s just what I need. I’ve had a couple of chats with him and straightaway I felt that hunger and that desire that he wanted from me. I need that and I wanted that.

“I want to be part of something which he’s building and, like I said before, it’s a very ambitious club.

“The fact there’s a new stadium going to be developing in the next few years, it’s exciting times for Everton Football Club.

“I’m dead excited and I just want to do what I do best which is playing football and expressing myself because I’m excited again, I really am.

“I do really believe that I’m going to give it my all, which is what I always have done, and this place is going to get even more out of me.

“There’s something about this move which I’ve just felt good about.

“It felt like it was time for me to move on [from Arsenal]. It was sad but it’s exciting at the same time and I want to reignite my career and push Everton to win things as they have done before.

“I want to be part of something and I feel like this place will offer me that.”

Walcott is the second departure from Arsenal in this transfer window. Francis Coquelin joined Valencia for £12m earlier this month.